A company owned in part by a former reality TV star has announced plans to open an interactive zoo.
"This is the culmination of a lifelong dream. It's an incredible opportunity to pursue animal conservation while creating an immersive, interactive and educational experience for visitors," Robbie Keszey said in a May 19 press release from Animal Crossings of Florida. Keszey owns the company with his brother Stephen Keszey and a third partner, Nathan Sweeting.
The two Keszeys are best known for their starring roles in the 2011 Discovery Channel reality TV show “Swamp Brothers.”
Snowball, an ultrarare leucistic alligator.
Animal Crossings of Florida said the highlight of the zoo will be two alligators with rare genetic mutations. One, named Snowball, has a pigmentation disorder that has left it with mostly white skin. The other, called Blizzard, has a striped black and white hide. It has a condition called piebaldism, which Animal Crossings says has never before been documented in an alligator.
The company didn’t say where the zoo will be located or when it will be open. But it said the attraction would focus on education as well as wildlife rehabilitation and the breeding of some species.
This is a corrected version of this story. The original contained incorrect information regarding a proposed site for the zoo.